News and Events

Dr. Mohammed Khalid, pictured centre with members of the IEEE Windsor Section, displays an award the group received under his leadership. Khalid has been elected to the executive committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Canada.

Dr. Mohammed Khalid, an electrical engineering professor, has been elected to the executive committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Canada.

IEEE is the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. It has more than 400,000 members worldwide, including more than 16,000 in Canada. IEEE membership offers access to technical innovation, cutting-edge information and networking opportunities.

Researchers from UWindsor Engineering’s Centre for Hybrid Automotive Research and Green Energy — CHARGE, for short — were among the exhibitors on the lower level of Cobo Center, displaying a prototype of an electric motor created in collaboration with Ford Motor Company of Canada.

CHARGE Labs researchers also brought along a controller that runs an electric motor, and information on the independent, third-party testing they can provide manufacturers developing their own electric vehicles.

“We are here to showcase the contributions we are making as a university with this lab,” said Narayan Kar, director of CHARGE Labs and a professor with expertise in electrified transportation systems. “We are creating knowledge and experts for the future…. That’s what we’d like to demonstrate to the outside world.”

UWindsor’s Hyperloop team is one of 52 teams worldwide to advance in a competition that encourages innovations in high-speed transportation.

The team formed in 2017 and hasn’t stopped working towards its goal of creating an electrically powered linear induction motor to propel a levitating pod through a sealed tube at speeds over 500 km/h. The group’s initial design work has helped them advance in SpaceX’s Hyperloop Pod Competition.

“We’re very dedicated to this,” says Stefan Sing, the team lead and founder who’s in his third year of mechanical engineering. “We’ve invested heavily in the linear induction motor and haven’t stopped making revisions. The team has been doing a stellar job.”

The team of 25 meets five times a week and ranges from undergraduate to graduate students studying mechanical, electrical and industrial engineering, and computer science.

Dr. Arezoo Emadi and Jenitha Balasingam, a graduate student who works with Emadi in the Electrical Micro & Nano Devices and Sensors Research Centre (e-Minds), adjust an ultrasonic imaging system for cancer detection.

What if family doctors had access to low-cost, handheld scanners or biosensors that could detect cancer at an early stage? What if they could monitor a patient’s heart activity through a wearable device and detect early signs of cardiovascular disease? How about a sensor that could prevent intoxicated drivers from operating vehicles or a navigation system that could aid the visually impaired indoors?

Researchers at the University of Windsor hope to advance these technologies and more in Windsor’s first state-of-the-art microfabrication facility. The high-tech clean room will be specially designed to facilitate multidisciplinary micro- and nano-scale research by controlling air pollutant levels, pressurization, temperature and humidity. It’s slated to open in 2019 in the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation.

“This fabrication facility will provide us with an ideal incubator for academia and industry to foster collaborative research and commercialization of advanced sensors, thus increasing our leadership in the emerging area of the micro nano sensor industry — an area which is rapidly growing,” says Dr. Jalal Ahamed, an assistant mechanical engineering professor who designs and fabricates micro- and nano-systems for a variety of applications, including healthcare, automotive, aerospace and manufacturing.

Although Dr. Becker BASc ’67, PhD ’70, has worked all over the globe, he always maintained a close relationship with the university. He even brought and sometimes paid out of his own pocket for engineering students to join him on his pro bono projects across the country and in rural China.

“Norm is a true role model who instills confidence and integrity in our students and, while succeeding in the engineering profession, has given back so much to the community,” Dr. Biswas says about the University of Windsor alumnus who’s spent his 51-year career working on complex engineering projects across North America, the Middle East, Africa, South America, the Caribbean and China.

Although Dr. Becker P.Eng. BASc ’67, PhD ’70 has worked all over the globe, he always maintained a close relationship with UWindsor. He even brought — and sometimes paid the cost out of his own pocket — engineering students with him on his pro bono projects across the country and in rural China.

For more than three years, Becker recruited engineers, students and trades people to design and plan water filtration systems for villages in the Chinese province of Shandong. While there, Becker and his team of volunteers took time to rebuild a fire-damaged medical clinic that sat unused for more than a year.

“Every school-aged child in the village inspected our work daily and charmed us with their smiles,” says Becker. “I think a few of them may aspire to become engineers themselves.”

Shawn at the Automotive Research and Development Centre (ARDC).

When Charlene Yates reminisces about her husband, she often thinks of a phrase he uttered so often during their 34 years of marriage.

“Come on, Char. It’s once in a lifetime,” he would say before whisking her away to explore the pyramids in Egypt, take a cruise, or play golf in Pebble Beach, California.

“He would go anywhere, any time,” Charlene fondly recalls.

The two met in high school. Charlene and Shawn would exchange shy hellos as they passed in the hall. It wasn’t until the two snuck into a Windsor wine festival that Shawn, the captain of the football team, worked up the courage to ask Charlene to dance.

“The rest was history,” she says.

The high school sweethearts married in 1983 and in 2017, watched their only son Bradley, 31, leave the house. They were starting to prepare for the next chapter of their lives. More traveling, more golfing and more time to spend together. But that all changed when Shawn was diagnosed with cancer in May 2017. Doctors were hopeful the active 57-year-old would respond well to treatment. Ten weeks later, his fight came to an end.

WRITTEN BY NORM BECKER BASC ’67, PHD ’70 ON BEHALF OF HIS CLASSMATES FROM THE CIVIL ENGINEERING CLASS OF ’67, PICTURED ABOVE.

In Canada’s centennial year, 13 civil engineering graduates from Ontario’s newest public university entered into an unsuspecting world to compete for internship positions against those who graduated from older, more prestigious institutions.

In 2017, six members of the class returned to campus to rekindle friendships, poke fun at their convincing old men disguises, and offer the following observations and suggestions to those who are following in their footsteps.

Engineers are the primary life-support providers for the seven billion messy people crowded on planet Earth. They rely upon us to put science into action to satisfy their rapacious needs and to accommodate the estimated one billion newbies added to this planet every 12 to 15 years.

Their expectation is that these needs be satisfied not only quickly, safely and affordably, but sustainably as well. Welcome to our busy profession. Our effectiveness as engineering practitioners depends upon our ability to research, develop and apply the newest scientific discoveries and technological advances wisely.

On April 20, 2018, residents of the Windsor area may have heard a rumble or felt unusual motion.

The initial assumptions on the source of the noise and motion were somewhat amusing before word spread that a magnitude 3.6 (Mw) earthquake had occurred. Most Canadians wouldn’t list earthquakes as a notable concern in their lives; however, contrary to popular belief, large areas of Canada are at significant risk due to seismic hazards.

In fact, some of the most highly densely populated areas of Canada (e.g. the west coast and the east coast along the St. Lawrence River) can and have experienced large earthquake events. A repeat of historical earthquake events in these areas could incur more than $60 billion in damage, and that’s not even the worst-case scenario!

From a structural engineering perspective, the primary objective is to protect life safety. The traditional approach to designing a structure for earthquakes anticipates and accepts that damage will occur. It is simply not feasible to design a conventional structure to withstand significant ground motions without damage. Alternatively, the structure is designed to be ductile and the damage is utilized as an energy dissipation mechanism. The major shortcoming with this approach is that often the damage is so severe that it is impractical to repair the structure and it must be demolished and rebuilt.

Two University of Windsor alumni at the forefront of Canada’s wind energy industry hope to drive economic and social change that will assist the country in its transition to a low-carbon economy.

“You’ll never run out of wind. Not only is the resource infinite, it’s free,” says Brandy Giannetta BA ’98, MA ’99. “Wind energy is now the lowest-cost option for new electricity generation in Canada, and it can be deployed incrementally and quickly.”

Giannetta and fellow alumnus Phil McKay BEng ’07, MASc ’11 champion wind energy growth nationwide in their roles at the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA), a non-profit industry association that represents the wind energy industry. CanWEA’s members are involved in the development and application of wind energy technology, products and services.

For the last six years, Giannetta has worked with original equipment manufacturers, wind project developers, owners, operators and service providers as CanWEA’s Ontario regional director.

Daniel Green has been recognized by the University of Windsor for his “superior performance” in teaching.

Dr. Green, a professor in the Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering Department, was awarded a Medal of Excellence in Teaching during the university’s 13th annual Celebration of Teaching Excellenceon on Nov. 21.

“Dr. Green’s work helps people to develop new and improved products and provides them with a competitive advantage in the marketplace,” says a faculty colleague of Green’s.